Goodbye Poppy

Poppy passed this morning. During the snow storm, her and Achille (her daughter, on the left in the picture above) did not want to leave the shed, with the pasture covered by one foot of snow, so I gave them an alfalfa mix. The bale was at the bottom of the pile, and has been resting on a plastic tarp probably for several years. I didn't notice that the bottom of the bale (tarp side) was completely moldy. Poppy got contaminated with mold, which is toxic to ruminants. She got a bad diarrhea, which literally took life out of her.
It was hard to see her getting weaker and weaker, then walking like a drunk goat(due to weakness), and finally resting down.
This is a hard lesson. Poppy was a good goat, and brought two cute goat kids to our farm. Winter can be hard on animals, Nubian goats are not cold weather animals, and even though our pasture give them almost ideal conditions in the summer, they need care in the winter, which is where I did not provide well enough for them.
To accompany her passing, we will make a bon fire ... with the remainder of the old moldy alfalfa mix still laying in the barn.
Goodbye poppy.